Haiku Revu: [REC] 3 Genesis

The third instalment in the Spanish supernatural horror series, starts like the others, shot from a first person view, however this time the cameras belong to guests at a wedding on the outskirts of Barcelona. After the introduction of the bride, groom and their extended family the party moves to the grounds of a palatial Villa where the massed throng repose to a reception in one of the larger rooms. At the climax of the evening’s entertainment, a dog-bitten grey faced veterinary uncle falls from a balcony onto the dance floor to the horror of the party goers. As a crowd gathers around him, rather than the expected twisted mass of limbs they find a demonic human who swiftly chews the face off someone close to him and starts a chain reaction of infection. The guests are quickly repurposed into fast moving zombies who proceed to wreak havoc and kick the movie into high gear. A handful survive the first encounter and the film switches to a more traditional framing as the groom plans on reuniting himself with his newly wed wife. After a series of unfortunate encounters the bride and groom have to come to terms with their predicament and bring the film to its logical conclusion.

Where the first REC was a terrifying survival horror spectacle, this film is much more gung-ho, with chain saw wielding brides and a stream of zombies waiting to be dispatched. It might be interesting to note that whilst Paco Plaza and Jaume Balagueró both wrote and directed the first two REC films, Paco directed this film whilst Jaume went on to direct Sleep Tight. Given the complete departure of REC3 from the haunting darkness of the other movies, it may not be too impertinent to suggest that Paco is McCartney to Jaume’s Lennon. The tone of the film is lighter than others in the series, but given knowledge of the previous episodes it is quite enjoyable taking everything in and just waiting for the beautiful train to derail. For example, seeing the introduction of the uncle complaining of a throbbing dog bite, you can’t help but wince at what you expect will be coming shortly where the large number of people extant at the beginning are all meat for the zombie grinder.

When we saw this was going to be shown at Frightfest 2012 we had hoped for something closer to the truly eerie REC. REC3 is a very different film, much closer to the feel of Dawn of the Dead when compared with the much darker Night Of The Living Dead. If you can overcome this expectation the film has some nice touches, extends the REC canon and is worth checking out. I’m giving this a zombie bitten, chainsaw-tastic one thumb up.